Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They’d love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

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This weeks Top Ten topic is …

Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger

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Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. I can’t remember if I came across the books or the films first, but I do know that I adore the first three books in the Vampire Chronicles. I have tried the later books and liked but not loved them for the most part, though Rice’s later determination to show that the relationships between the male vampires was purely platonic left me cold. What I really love about this book in particular is the voice, Louis was so different to any vampire I had come across before and then there was Lestat…

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The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. It is no coincidence that this author and this series end up on a LOT of my TTT posts. I read this when I was about 12 maybe 13, so probably around 1998/9, and just fell in love with the characters and the world. For me this book did, and still does, encapsulate everything I LOVE in a good fantasy book: swords, sorcery, and of course a talking cat 😉 Alanna became the sort of female lead I wanted to read in every book, and I’ll admit I still have a soft spot for kick-ass female heroes.

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I’d like to say that classics aren’t my thing, but that would be kind of a lie. Adult classics aren’t my thing. I think P&P is the only adult classic that I have ever fallen in love with and read and re-read. I’ve tried other books by Austen, but none of them have really held a candle to this one. P&P, especially when I first read it, is everything I dislike about a book but I ended up falling in love with it.

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The Redemption of Athalus by David and Leigh Eddings. The talking cat sold this book to me 😉 No, in all seriousness what sold me this book was the fact that when we first meet him Athalus is everything the hero of a book shouldn’t be, and he’s actually quite proud of it. I loved reading the interplay between him and Emmy, it never fails to make me smile.

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Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. The first werewolf book I loved. Before this I was very definitely a vampire girl. I trawled the horror shelves – because I came across this series in the pre-PR/UF days – and happened upon this book. I’ll be honest, the cover didn’t exactly enthuse me but there was something about the blurb… To this day Elena and Clay remain my favourite werewolf characters, and I’m rather sad that the series is now over.

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The Forbidden Game by L. J. Smith. All I have to say is Julian Julian Julian! When I first read it the trilogy blew me away. I hadn’t come across anything quite like it before, and I haven’t since. It’s actually quite a creepy story, and a very dangerous one for the characters. But it gave me an interest in Norse mythology, and opened my eyes to new possibilities.

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What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. I said earlier that classics weren’t really my cup of tea, but this book here proves that wrong. I got this book, along with other children’s classics, from my Gran and I just loved Katy Carr and her siblings. I’ve read the first three books in the series, and I’d LOVE to get my hands on the last two books but it seems to be nearly impossible to do so.

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The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I read this book only because the films were coming out, and Dad said I should read the books first. I was sceptical. First, in a single volume the three books look HUGE. Second, Tolkien’s language is incredibly dense and descriptive – not really my cup of tea, I kept looking for the action. Slowly I found myself drawn into the world, and whilst there are times when I think Tolkien could have been a little less wordy I found myself drawn to the characters and the world he created. It is an epic story, no pun intended and I’m glad I tried it.

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Merry Gentry by Laurell K. Hamilton. A friend from school recommended Hamilton’s Anita Blake series and I had devoured all the books published to that point and was looking for something else to read, when I came across by chance another series written by her. It was about the sidhe and faerie. The thing I most love about this series is that Hamilton was open from the start that it would include a lot of sex. You can’t walk into this series and not realise by the end of the first book that sex is going to be a big thing in the series (which you totally can’t do with the Anita Blake series). I’m hoping Hamilton will write more of Merry’s adventures, but we’ll see.

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The Hollows by Kim Harrison. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before in previous TTTs how I came across this series – through the recommendation of someone I’d met through a different books fandom. But what I LOVE about the series is the humour that underpins it. Reading this series makes me smile 🙂

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What are your favourite books that you read before you started blogging? Do you agree with my choices? Let me know in the comments below, or link up to your own Top Ten Tuesday entry so I can read your list.